This invention relates to projection displays and is a way of projecting an image through a light guide with reduced distortion.
Video projectors produce big moving images at low cost. An inexpensive way of making a television is, as shown in FIG. 1, to point a projector 1 via a mirror 3 onto the rear of a diffusive screen 5. This form of projection television is, however, bulky and users prefer displays to be slim.
A slim projection display can be made according to the applicant's earlier WO 01/72037 by pointing a video projector into the thick end of a tapered light-guide. The principle is illustrated in FIG. 2; the rays entering the thick end 12 of a tapered-panel waveguide 10 via an inclined face bounce at progressively steeper angles until they exceed the critical angle and exit; a shallow ray (solid line) travels further before this happens and therefore exits further along the display (up, in the usual orientation). This is called the tapered-waveguide principle, though it could be brought about by GRIN techniques instead of a purely geometrical taper.
A problem is that, since the projector is much smaller in the lateral dimension than the panel, rays fan out from the point of injection, so the projected image will be V-shaped. Furthermore, the projected image will be broken into bands: each band contains all the rays that undergo a given number of reflections, while the set of rays which have undergone one pair of reflections more or less than rays exiting in adjacent bands will be separated by a gap.
As explained in WO 01/72037, one can insert a transparent input slab of constant thickness between the projector and the tapered light-guide; this means that rays will have the opportunity to fan out before entering the tapered light-guide, so that the projected image becomes trapezoidal. This is less objectionable than a V-shape but there is still significant keystone distortion. Moreover, viewers like images to fill the screen, so it is desirable to fold the input slab behind the tapered light-guide. This can be done with a pair of right-angled prisms spanning the width of the screen.
A ray entering the input slab at slightly less than the critical angle with respect to its faces undergoes many reflections in the slab but few in the tapered light-guide, whereas a ray entering at much less than the critical angle undergoes few reflections in the slab and many in the tapered light-guide. WO 03/013151 by the applicant explains how to shape the tapered light guide in order that the sum of reflections through the system is the same for rays at all angles of entry, so the projected image is no longer broken into bands.
Because this profile is designed for rays along the centre-line, it works less well with skew rays, i.e. rays at a large fan-out angle, and if the projected image is widened, its sides become dim and may still break into bands.
Dimness at the sides can be eliminated by making the shape of the input slab plus tapered light guide equivalent to an extrusion of the profile along the centre-line in a circle about the point of light injection, as shown in FIG. 3, which represents the system shown in WO 2006/082444, cut along the centre line. The solid line is a ray injected into the input slab 20 at the largest possible angle (bottom of image), while the dashed line is that at the lowest angle, exiting the tapered waveguide at the top of the image. Rays are now never skew to the direction for which the profile was designed, but the system is polar-symmetric, so the projected image is distorted into curves. Furthermore, the boundary between the slab and tapered light-guide is no longer straight, so the system cannot be folded with straight prisms of constant cross-section.
Tapered light-guides can also be used in reverse according to WO 02/45413 so that a camera pointed into the thick end of the input slab captures an image of whatever is placed against the face of the tapered light-guide, but the same problems with polar symmetry arise.